Hello! Sick again, of course, but still having fun.
On Tuesday, I worked a mid-shift (ie neither open nor close) but managed to sneak out a bit earlier, as my opening friends Briana, Amanda and Sam had already left Canada and checked into our family suite at Art of Animation, where we stayed for a few days for funsies. We were in the Lion King area (there's Finding Nemo, The Little Mermaid, Lion King and Cars) and had Timon, Pumba and baby Simba guarding our building.
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| In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the merchies sleep tonight. |
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| This coffee table/ footstool in our living room had no worries. |
On Wednesday, we got up on the early side to hit up Hollywood Studios, not knowing that that was also the plan of some 35,000 other people. Long lines aside, we were able to do Rock'n Roller Coaster, Star Tours and an Animation Studios drawing class (we drew Minnie and mine was not bad at all), as well as the new walk-through exhibit, The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow, before a combination of the heat and yet another illness sent me packing back to the Lion King for the evening. The others came back after not too long and we went to Landscape of Flavours, the aptly-named food court of Art of Animation for dinner.
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| Sam, Briana, Amanda and I going from 0 to 57 miles per hour in 2.8 seconds. |
On Thursday we all slept in until Amanda and Sam had to report to Disney's Health and Fitness Expo to pick up their supplies for the upcoming Walt Disney World Marathon weekend. Both were running the half-marathon (ie 13.1 miles ie 21.1 kilometres) and needed registration numbers, etc. We reunited at the Big Blue Pool, the main pool area of Art of Animation, belonging to the Finding Nemo buildings. Underwater speakers and salt water, not to mention jellyfish-shaped waterfalls. The lifeguards were leading kids (of all ages) in the Cupid Shuffle. There's a solid chance we outshined them all. We packed it in when the clouds rolled over, got all dolled up and took the resort bus to Magic Kingdom for a dinner reservation at Be Our Guest (if you're keeping track, this would be my second time in a week and third overall). We had a lovely, fancy, French dinner, complete with delicious grey stuff, and settled our tummies with Space Mountain and Journey of the Little Mermaid.
Friday, Amanda and Briana checked out of Art of Animation early to go open Canada, but Sam and I were able to sleep in, as a mid and a closer. We had a final breakfast (Sam had lunch) at Landscape of Flavours and headed home/to work.
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| Pagers at Be Our Guests disappointingly do not play "Be Our Guest". |
The next day was the WDW half-marathon, and I woke up to multiple text and facebook reports of my favourite two runners, not to mention gave away hundreds of stickers and congratulations to anyone wearing the Donald Duck half-marathon trophy. This morning was the full WDW marathon, which, although it started at 5:30 this morning, I had to cross onstage in order to get to work. Duffy the bear (the 20th mile character, characters at every mile, so Disney) and I stood across the stream of runners from each other, me wanting to cross and him likely wanting sweaty runner hugs. I literally had to be directed through by a special events cast member. We got triumphant music on the promenade until about 1:30 this afternoon, when the last runner crossed into the park.
Maybe Family Fun Run 5K for me next time, but absolutely no promises. Everyone knows how I feel about running (only for life-saving purposes, and even then...).
TTFN,
Note: Disney Parks' big thing in 2013 is
Limited Time Magic, in which cool and magical things happen, but only for a week or two. Next week's big special event is that, starting tomorrow, it's going to snow over the Canada Pavilion and we'll have characters for meeting and greeting. MAGICAL!
Thanks to: The cast of Hollywood Studios, for being just as magical as we were expecting.
